Copending applications of applicants herein, Ser. Nos. 882,486 and 882,487, both filed on July 7, 1986, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,714,156, granted Dec. 22, 1987 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,718,546, granted Jan. 12, 1988, respectively, and commonly assigned herewith, address the hanging of suspenders of the type having stems with slots therein for receiving buttons disposed interiorly on a trouser waistband. Both such hangers are in the form of a flat body having a hook portion upwardly of suspender stem engaging structure. In the former patent application, the hanger has a pair of openings extending therethrough and an elongate member is cantilever-supported in each such opening and configured compatibly with a suspender stem and its button slots to retain the stem by releasable engagement with both slots thereof. In the latter patent application, the hanger has a pair of foldable straps dependent therefrom, each strap being configured compatibly with a suspender stem to receive and retain both slotted ends thereof.
Another type of suspenders is known in the art, namely of the type having stems equipped with snaps adapted to receive and retentively close upon the waistband of trousers, without need for the trouser waistband to have suspender buttons. This type of suspenders is quite popular, since many trousers do not come equipped with such suspender buttons.
The snap type suspender presents a display problem not faced in connection with the previously described suspender. Thus, such snaps are desirably closed at the point of manufacture to facilitate shipment thereof without suspenders bccoming entangled with one another. This is in contrast to the stem/slot type of suspenders, which are shipped with stem slots free but not likely to give rise to suspenders entanglement. Since heretofore known hangers are not adapted at all to the retention of the snaps of snap type suspenders in closed state, they do not afford a solution to the problem presented at the point of manufacture as it impacts on display at the point of sale. Opening and closing suspender snaps to effect display is of course not a meaningful solution since it consumes labor and is inefficient.
In a further commonly assigned application, Ser. No. 49,794 entitled "Hanger for Suspenders with Trouser Snaps", filed concurrently herewith, a suspender hanger is provided which overcomes the foregoing problem. Such hanger, in summary, provides a hanger for the hanging of suspenders of the type having snaps which, in first state, are open to receive the waistband of trousers, and, in second state, are closed retentively upon such waistband. The hangers of the invention comprise an integral body of resilient synthetic material having a first or upper, hook portion for engaging a display rod, and a second or lower portion, depending from the first portion and defining at least one pair of openings therethrough, each bounded in first part by continuous wall structure of the integral body and in second part by a discontinuity in the hanger body providing a passage into such opening. First and second segments of the wall structure respectively aside the passage are mutually deflectable, permitting the receipt in such opening of a suspender snap in such closed state thereof, and are then reversely deflectable to retain the snap.
Typically, each snap has first and second closable jaws on the interior of each of which is secured a resilient pad which frictionally engages the trouser waistband. Each hanger opening is sized to receive and circumscribe the resilient pads of a snap.
Current fashion trends have developed a substantial market for coordinated suspenders and neckties. Accordingly, need exists for expeditious joint display thereof.